While Sicily’s Etna Rosso is its flagship wine, made from ancient vines of nerello mascalese and nerello cappuccino that diffuse an engaging wildness with a volcanic and sulfurous sensibility, the quality of its white counterpart – Etna Bianco – should not be overlooked.

We have previously listed some great value Etna Rosso wines under $50 (see here). So now it’s time to wave the flag for Etna Bianco for anyone looking for quality value whites under $35 that can substitute for cool-climate minerally Chablis or Riesling.

Suppose the nerello mascalese-based Etna Rosso hints at a mélange of powerful, savory nebbiolo with a pinot noir airiness and a sangiovese succulence. In comparison, the carricante-led Etna Bianco could be reminiscent of a wild and exotic rendition of Chablis / Chablis Premier Cru, or of a high-quality Picpoul de Pinet with the zest of a bone-dry riesling. All are powerhouses of acidity accentuated by a plentitude of citrusy, limy fruit and flinty, mineral notes.

The wine is as much about its volcanic sense of place as it is about the local varieties. Driven by a minimum of 60% carricante (80% for the “Superiore”), probably the finest grape reserved for Sicily’s quality dry whites, Etna Bianco usually also contains a lesser amount of catarratto, Sicily’s most prominent white grape, among other piecemeal varieties such as grecanico, minnella, inzolia and trebbiano or chardonnay. All tend to soften the edges of carricante by adding some neutral lemony flavors and suppleness.

Today, many producers increasingly rely on pure carricante to maximize its zingy virtues of tart citrus fruit, often with a briny whiff and its bright beams of acidity, which extend to the palate with a dusty, almost lava-ash and saline minerality. It thrives well on cool, elevated sites planted above nerello mascalese, a lot of them higher than 700 meters in the humid, southeastern slope of Etna terrain where it benefits from a longer ripening season. The result can be surprisingly linear and steely, rendering an angular riesling drive with striking malic acid touch. In these sun-bathed Sicilian regions malolactic fermentation and lees-aging are common to round out carricante’s pin-pointed edge, while adding a creamy dimension. Some more ambitious bottles can be oaked for more layers of complexity and approachability.

The following selection of Etna Bianco wines hit the sweet spots of quality, value, and sense of place. As much as I like to compare it with Chablis, picpoul or dry riesling, fine Etna Bianco is really in a league of its own. Other worthy producers/wines to look at including Planeta’s Eruzione 1614 at a higher price, which is a carricante blended with a discreet proportion of riesling, Benanti, I Custodi and Salvo Foti as well as Biondi and Masseria Setteporte.

– Zekun Shuai, associate editor in Beijing